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Chelmsford man loses suit

CHELMSFORD -- A lawsuit against the town for approving a controversial building at 9 North Road has been dismissed by a Superior Court judge.

Resident Roland Van Liew sued the town after it allowed construction of a 15,000-square-foot office building on the site in Chelmsford center. He argued that selectmen in 2009, 2010 and 2012 failed to enforce a preservation restriction on the property, which he said should have made the building illegal.

Judge Joseph M. Walker III, in his dismissal of the suit, said that within the state statute on preservation restrictions, "there are no circumstances under which the board has a specific, unequivocal duty to enforce a preservation restriction against a landowner."

Walker denied a motion by the town to have Van Liew pay the defendants' attorney fees. His decision was dated Nov. 9 and mailed Nov. 13, according to court documents.

Van Liew hadn't heard of the decision when he was reached late Thursday afternoon but said he disagreed with the ruling.

"That would indicate officials don't have an unequivocal duty to uphold the law," he said when told of Walker's statement on preservation restrictions. "That's certainly breaking new ground. To me, that's a little scary."

"The judge just turned this into a groundbreaking case," Van Liew said. "This is setting a new precedent."

Alan Hoch, Van Liew's attorney in the case, said it was "difficult to understand" why the Legislature would enact laws for land protecting if public officials have no duty to enforce them.

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"The decision seems to imply that unless a law enacted by the Legislature expressly states that enforcement is mandatory, the persons or bodies charged with enforcing the law have no legal duty to do so and can enforce the law or not enforce the law, at their whim," Hoch said.

"The court's decision, if upheld on appeal, would eviscerate not only the preservation restriction at issue in this case but in all likelihood untold numbers of restrictions across the commonwealth, enforcement of which according to the Trial Court is entirely discretionary."

Town Manager Paul Cohen gave a brief statement on the decision. "This ruling from Judge Walker follows a similar ruling last year from Land Court Judge (Gordon) Piper on the complaint filed by Richard McClure," he said. "Hopefully, the town will not need to devote any additional legal expenditures or staff resources on this matter."

Multiple lawsuits have been filed related to 9 North Road. The town has come out on the winning end of multiple decisions on the property so far.

An abutter to the site, Michael Sargent, lost a Land Court lawsuit against the Planning Board of Historic District Commission. Resident Richard McClure also sued, and lost.

Last December, the state Ethics Commission closed an investigation into allegations of cronyism. The property is owned by the family of former Selectman Philip Eliopoulos.

A review by The Sun of town documents in July showed that the town had spent nearly $96,000 in legal costs from the lawsuits and a special recall vote of selectmen led by Van Liew for the officials' involvement in the 9 North Road permitting.

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